Poultry exec scoffs at MSU professors' post-Sandy predictions

WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delmarva peninsula’s poultry industry is up and running after emerging from Superstorm Sandy relatively unscathed.

The Delaware Department of Agriculture said there was no significant flooding or poultry house damage, and that chicken farmers are generally in good shape. Feed trucks are back on the road, and poultry processing plants resumed operations Wednesday.

Bill Satterfield, executive director of Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc., said a farm on the lower Delmarva peninsula lost 80,000 two-week-old chickens to flooding, and that some chicken houses in the same area were still relying on generator power. Another chicken house lost part of the roof, and two chicken houses near Crisfield, Md., also were flooded, said Satterfield, who was unaware of any other damage.

Satterfield scoffed at the notion from two agriculture economics professors at Mississippi State University that the storm is likely to cause short-term disruptions and potential price-gouging because of damage on the Delmarva peninsula

“We managed pretty well considering there are about 100 million chickens alive on the Delmarva peninsula at any one time,” he said.

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